The Weihe River, the largest tributary of the Yellow River, is seriously polluted and local officials say it requires long-term remedial treatment.

 

"The problem has occurred over a long period, and like a human who suffers from a serious disease, it requires long-term treatment," said He Fali, director of Shaanxi Provincial Administration Bureau of Environmental Protection.

 

 

The Weihe River basin, which stretches from west to east, covers one-third of the province's total area. It is home to 63 percent of the population, contains 56 percent of the farmlands and generates about 80 percent of the province's GDP.

 

Rapid economic development, population growth and increasing production along the Weihe, has taken its toll since the 1980s, according to the provincial environmental protection authority.

 

Li Dahu, director of Shaanxi Provincial Environment Monitoring, said the Weihe has become a waste water channel for cities along the river.

 

Latest statistics show that nearly one million tons of sewage is dumped every day in the Zaohe River, a tributary of the Weihe, from Xi'an, the province's capital with more than six million people.

 

Other cities along the Weihe, such as Baoji, Xianyang and Weinan, also dump sewage into the river to varying degrees, Li said.

 

Statistics show that with the introduction of measures to shut down polluting enterprises along the river in 2005 and 2006, urban sewage had become the major polluting source, accounting for more than 60 percent.

 

Zhang Juncai, 74, a farmer living in Xi'an's Caotan Village near the Weihe, said in the 1980s there was plenty of fish in the river and the farmers liked to swim in it. However, the water had now become black and smelled, and many villagers were suffering from diseases associated with the river.

 

The problem has drawn the attention of the local government and a number of measures have been introduced to clean up the river, according to He.

 

Yuan Chunqing, governor of the province, said in his government report to the provincial People's Congress in March the province will introduce three major measures the closure of pollution-causing enterprises, building more sewage treatment plants, and ecological environment rebuilding along the Weihe.

 

"We closed more than 1,000 factories in 2005 and 56 paper-making firms in 2006," the governor said.

 

According to the provincial construction administration bureau, 10 sewage treatment plants and nine garbage disposal stations along the river will be built by the end of this year and another 15 county-level sewage treatment plants are also planned.

 

Weinan, a major city along the Weihe in eastern Shaanxi, will close all coal mines with an annual production capacity of lower than 30,000 tons by the end of the year.

 

"We want to make the Weihe clean and fresh again during the 11th Five-Year Plan (2006-10)," He said.

 

 

 

(China Daily May 15, 2007)